I'm Not Your Mother
by illegiblewriter
Summary: *One-Shot* Videl is furious with Gohan's cowardice, and the resulting argument escalates to new levels revealing just what-- in the grand scheme of things-- it really means to love. Those who love always have happy endings.


Consider this a filler until the next chapter in A Day in Paradise.

**I'm Not Your Mother**

"I don't understand. You love martial arts, and you're good— a thousand times better than I could ever hope to be-- if you just trained."

"I don't really love it anymore, Dad. I used to, but not anymore."

"I understand," Goku began to walk out, but before he left, he turned to give a last sobering look at his son, "but you know, Gohan, I'm not always going to be around."

Gohan winced slightly at this remark, but his defeated tone never changed.

"Yeah, Dad, I know," he whispered. And with a casual shrug, Goku exited the house to where Piccolo was waiting for him.

From around the corner, a pair of sapphire eyes watched as Gohan turned his back on the scene behind the window and resumed his reading on the couch. It took the skilled eyes of his wife to notice the painfully slow way he turned, and the distracted way his eyes read and re-read the same line on the page. Well, that just wouldn't do.

"Gohan?" It wasn't really a question, and with that one word Videl boldly left her hiding place and set herself up to dominate the conversation that would follow. Gohan seemed to know this already, and immediately assumed a meek, self-sacrificing sort of attitude.

"Care to tell me what that was all about?" Also not a question.

"Just my dad wanting me to train with him and Piccolo,"

"And you said no?" Still not a question.

"Yup,"

"Why?" Not a question just yet.

Gohan looked up, no longer able to avoid telling his wife all that he'd been hiding from her.

"I just can't do it,"

His answer caught Videl by surprise—he sounded so… wounded.

"I don't understand." _That_ was a question.

He sighed, and as defeated as he seemed to be, he still hedged his answer. "I don't want to leave you."

Videl stood there for a brief moment, mouth slightly agape before shutting it and walking gently over to her husband's side on the living room couch. They sat there for several minutes; Gohan slumped over with his head in his hands and elbows on his knees, Videl almost limp in confusion just watching him, searching for any hint in her husband's posture that would explain what was happening. He'd never looked so…. Embarrassed? And yet, for Gohan, he knew he'd never felt so resolved.

"Gohan… you don't need to protect me."

He said nothing, but straightened his back and turned to face her directly. His silence angered her, and she furrowed her brow before snapping—

"Hey! Why don't you just explain yourself!"

He winced a little at her rage but quickly shot back—

"Why is it so important that I train?"

"Because you're a fighter—that's what you do!"

"I'm also a professor—"

"Is that what this is—"

"_And _a husband—"

"all about?"

"_And _a father!"

Somewhere in the midst of the yelling they had stood up, for they now found themselves on opposite sides of the room, panting heavily.

"If your job is interfering with your training, you could just quit. It's not like we need the money."

"So I should just let your father take care of us, then?"

"If your real job doesn't pay—"

"My _real_ job? What makes fighting my _real_ job?"

"What do you mean? Saving the planet isn't important enough?"

"Oh my God—" Gohan turned sharply and put both his fists in his hair to prevent himself from punching a hole in the wall.

"You and my father! 'I'm not always going to be around, Gohan,'—couldn't he tell me what he was thinking? 'You're letting us all down, Gohan,' 'the whole world will die, Gohan,' 'it's your fucking responsibility, Gohan'!" He shot daggers at her from his position in the entryway.

"Well he has a point, hasn't he? What else have you been training your whole life for, anyway?"

"Maybe I don't want to anymore!"

"Why not? He's right-- you love it! If you hated it, I'd say 'fine'! 'Go ahead'! But you love it and you know you do, so why are you making yourself miserable and staying at home?"

"Maybe I do love it, but maybe…" the sudden softness in his voice, and the forlorn gaze he cast over Videl shocked a wave of silence into the room. Videl just shook her head, but Gohan walked over until he was just a few inches from her, and looked down pleadingly as he finally explained.

"Look, when I was little, Mom and Dad always had arguments—worse than this—about how he was never around. He cared about fighting more than his family. He was recklessly endangering himself. He broke her heart, she always said.

"I don't want to do that to my family.

"Maybe it _is _my responsibility to save the world. Maybe I _am_ being selfish—caring more about two people than the rest of the world but--", another defeated sigh, "I'd rather the entire universe exploded than die knowing that my daughter and my wife never got to love me."

Videl leaned back, and slowly took in everything he said.

"You're forgetting just one thing,"

He looked at her doubtfully.

"I'm not your mother."

To this, Gohan gave a sad smile— she wasn't going to let it go. "No, you're not." And right then, _right then_, something deep in Videl stirred. Memories. Of yelling. Of arguments. Of resentment. Of a heart-wrenching awareness that something was missing and that she needed to feel more than what she was given.

"But you're also not your father-- or mine. He was the same way you know," the way she was looking at him now… his heart pounded, knowing that one look was the reason he'd let the world burn. Love. And she flung her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest.

Somehow, they both knew—and maybe it was selfish to acknowledge it—but they knew that one-day, the world would end. And it could be with Goku as its protector. It could be the day after he died. It could be a thousand years from now. But it would end. And while everyone waited in line at the pearly gates there would be two kinds of people. The kind that wished they could've helped save it all so that they could have everything they had lost, and the kind that were glad they had loved and didn't care if the world never came back.

Those who love always have happy endings.

**A/n: **So, I'm expecting a somewhat controversial response to this guy. Tell me what you think, but I'm warning you—like Gohan, I've never been more certain that Gohan and Videl are making the right choice.


End file.
